Imran is the co-founder of Startup92 and curates the Pak Startup Weekly newsletter. He tweets at @ImrnHdr.
The story of Savaree, a carpooling app in Pakistan, is not a typical one. Co-founder Madeeha Hasan was a graphic designer at a software house. She loved her job and also the money that came along with it. At a conference for entrepreneurs held in her city, she heard stories of entrepreneurs, how they have struggled to get their startups off the ground. She immediately thought that’s very unlike my situation. She felt relief in the fact that she doesn’t want and have to go through all that.
Yet every day she faced the problem of commuting to work. Public transport is no fun and the daily cab was pretty expensive. She came up with this idea of a ride-sharing app. Somebody who has a car can pick up passengers going the same way who can contribute to the fuel expenses. That’s exactly what Savaree does. Hasan pitched this idea at a Code for Pakistan hackathon at the start of the year. There she met with Qasim Zafar who joined her as a partner. In the next two days they developed the prototype and won the prize as the audience favourite at the hackathon.
But that was it for Hasan (pictured below) as far as Savaree was concerned. Next day she was back at the office when her boss nudged her and said, Why are you still here? After some pushing from her boss and friends, she reluctantly decided to take this idea further. Zafar joined in as CEO and with a couple of developers they decided to make this carpooling service a reality. They got incubated as part of the first batch of Lums Center of Entrepreneurship (LCE) in Lahore. They launched the Android app in April.
Rocket boost
The young team got a big boost last month when Ahmed Khan, an executive at Rocket Internet who was propelling the German startup dynamo into Pakistan, joined Savaree. He was formerly CEO of Rocket’s Azmalo, Zamudi, and Easytaxi Pakistan, and also the MD of Kaymu.
Khan says to Tech in Asia that he felt inspired to join the new startup because of what they stand for. Hasan, sitting next to Khan, chimes in to explain their vision. “You don’t want to spend the rest of your life making clones of other companies, do you?”
“Despite being in Rocket Internet that disrupts industries with its huge money muscle, I never ever worked solely for money,” says Khan. “For me, money is always a bi-product. I joined Rocket Internet with this intention of contributing to the startup ecosystem of Pakistan. I had a great time there and I was instrumental in some of their biggest product launches in Asia. But I soon realized that I had to do something for my country. With Rocket Internet I was going away from that personal goal of mine.”
The expanded team is still figuring out how this new setup will work. “It’s a bit of a challenge to define exactly what each of us will be heading. In a young startup it’s always a mixture. But most probably Zafar will be looking after the technology side, Hasan will lead product development, and I will be heading strategy, operations, and funding”, adds Khan.
Roadmap
Having already graduated from LCE, Savaree is currently under Invest2Innovate (i2i), a startup acceleration program headed by Kalsoom Lakhani.
“You know you are just like a baby and they take care of you at the very start,” says Hasan of LCE. “The one thing I learned from LCE is you are the one who makes or breaks your business.”
She says that i2i is very different. “It makes things go faster and that totally make sense because it’s an accelerator. My favorite thing about i2i is that after the first weekend event you have a wonderfully close-knit group of friends who all did their bit to help each other out.”
The ride-sharing idea seems very promising in a country where smartphone penetration is growing and taxi apps haven’t yet taken off. There’s no Uber option either.
Importantly for the startup team, the product can be expanded to other countries in the region and that’s exactly what Savaree is looking for. Their future plans include expanding Savaree to Dubai, Malaysia, and Indonesia after quickly rolling out in major cities across Pakistan. Savaree is looking for funding for all these potential roll-outs.
“Yes, we are definitely looking for funding. Without it we believe the process will be slow and prone to disruption,” Hasan says.
Savaree’s app will soon get a few tweaks, such as the option for people to share a cab. An iOS app is coming soon as well.
Savaree is available for Android.
See: Rocket Internet’s earnings: small numbers but strong growth in Asia
This post In Pakistan, a winding road for the entrepreneurs building a carpooling app appeared first on Tech in Asia.
In Pakistan, a winding road for the entrepreneurs building a carpooling app
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